From Telehealth to TB elimination, Nunavut candidates weigh in on health-care strategies

As the federal election campaign enters its final days, Nunavut’s candidates are highlighting health care as a top priority, with each bringing their own experience to offer ideas about long-standing challenges in the North.

All three candidates are focusing on early intervention through the Inuit Child First Initiative, a federal program designed to ensure Inuit children receive equitable access to health services.

“Supporting children is about supporting the future of Nunavut, so really taking care of their health is important,” Conservative candidate James T. Arreak said in an interview.

He described one case, where nearly half the population of a 2,000-person community was registered with the program, as “daunting.”

Liberal candidate Kilikvak Kabloona said she’s encouraged by the government’s commitment to continue Inuit Child First Initiative funding, which she said will help tackle food insecurity, a contributing factor to tuberculosis and other negative health outcomes.

However, NDP candidate Lori Idlout, the incumbent MP, said the Liberal government is “breaking promises” in its handling of the Inuit Child First Initiative with “huge portions of the program, including the food voucher and early years program, being cancelled.”

Funding for the Inuit Child First Initiative expired March 31. Indigenous Services Canada announced a $121.7-million, one-year extension in early March; however, this funding still needs approval from Parliament, which won’t sit until after the April 28 federal election.

Arreak said he favours exploring technology to bridge the health-care gap in remote communities, pointing to the Kivalliq hydro-fibre project — a proposed 1,200-kilometre hydroelectric transmission line between Manitoba and the Kivalliq Region and improved broadband service — and its potential to improve access to Telehealth.

“Telehealth facilitates doctors and expert specialists who can be given access to a person in a remote location that is having health issues,” he said.

He added that with government support, artificial intelligence and remote health tools “could really make a difference in a life-and-death situation.”

Kabloona supports expanding access to health care through mobile clinics.

“We had audiologists and optometrists travelling to communities … I’d like to see that happening in travelling clinics,” she said.

Idlout said she is focused on addressing health-care inequities by holding the federal government accountable.

“In my last term, the Government of Nunavut had reached out to me because Indigenous Services Canada was not meeting its obligations,” she said.

She added, “I was able to get them about $40 million back,” referring to the non-insured health benefits program.

Idlout said she also advocates for greater recognition of Inuit knowledge in health care.

“We have Inuit who are experienced midwives that we need to be using better,” she said. “We need to do a better job making sure that Inuit experience and knowledge are being used to help alleviate the pressures of a nursing shortage.”

Kabloona noted that a recently signed $1.5-billion contract under the Nunavut Agreement includes more than $600 million for Inuit employment and training in public service, including health care.

“I’m pleased with the Liberal platform’s commitment to increase medical school residency spaces and build new medical schools,” she said.

Idlout said the need to improve mental health services across Nunavut was emphasized by her push for more culturally appropriate counsellor training offered through Ilisaqsivik, which runs counselling and wellness programs in several communities.

“We really need to ensure that we’re lifting up Inuit for the skills that they do have,” she said.

Kabloona said that as former associate deputy minister with the Government of Nunavut’s Quality of Life division, she helped develop a mental health and addictions plan, which includes the addictions treatment facility being built in Iqaluit.

“I’m aware that Nunavut needs more access to mental health support and also social emotional programs so that there are coping skills built,” she said.